Fahnestock hangs up meat manager cap at Busch's

Wednesday

The longtime meat cutter and Ash Township volunteer firefighter worked his last day Monday at Busch's in Carleton.

CARLETON — Mike Fahnestock was 15 when he started working at the new Gruber’s Food Market in Carleton in 1978 and rode his bicycle about a mile to work.

“It was a small store just starting,” he recalled. “This was where the Carleton carnival grounds once stood and some guy was electrocuted putting up rides. Gruber’s bought the land and I started as a bag boy. I learned how to cut meat. After I graduated from Airport, I became full time.”

He didn’t have to ride his bike on his last day of work Monday at the store, now called Busch’s Fresh Food Market. After 41 years in the grocery business, Fahnestock has retired and hung up his meat manager cap and being a “big brother” to scores of employees and customers at the store.

More than 100 people attended an open house and dinner reception for him at Anson’s in Carleton Saturday.

“He’s a pillar in the community,” store manager Tim Surma said about the employee he has known for 23 years. “He’s rock steady, like one of those veteran players on your team. He knows what sells and understands the market and people. It’s not easy to replace someone with that experience and loyalty.”

Fahnestock, 56, knows and greets almost everyone who comes into the store off Grafton Rd. He wore long underwear to work every day to combat the cold that he faced in the “Meat Cave,” as the walk-in cooler and his office are called.

He spent most of his day in the cooler where the temperature hovers around the freezing mark. There he stored much of the beef, chicken and pork that he chopped each day.

He said of all the meats he works with, chicken still is popular for shoppers because it is relatively low in fat content. Pork (known as the other white meat) and beef are holding their own in a volatile market.

“People are watching their fat real close,” he said.

Fahnestock is the only butcher who Denise Wilburn knows. Her daughter, Tiffany Bristol, works at the store.

“He’s always friendly and chats with you,” Wilburn said. “He talks with my grandkids. He’s got a nickname for every kid who comes in here.”

Her two grandsons — Ben Bristol, 11, and Parker, 7 — made gifts from their woodworking shop to give to Fahnestock Monday. Ben routed and spray painted a portrait of a deer for he and his wife, Dea, to hang in their home. Parker crafted a lily out of wood to place in their yard. Both said their friend always gave them gifts, so they were returning the kindness.

The marquee outside the store announced that the Village of Carleton was bidding goodbye to Fahnestock and his wife, Dea, who retired earlier as a teacher for the Monroe County Intermediate School District for 31 years.

The couple has sold their home and are moving this week to northern Michigan where they are buying a house on the Muskegon River.

Shoppers were encouraged to sign a farewell poster for the meat manager.

“He’s just a sweetheart,” said Brenda Ciersezwski of Carleton. “It will be funny not seeing him at the meat counter.”

Ray Boyd of Newport said he’s known Fahnestock for 25 years.

“He’s a good guy and neighbor,” Boyd said. “We used to hang out together and (party). He’d take the shirt off his back if you needed it.”

Charlie Rhodes from Flat Rock met him for the first time. Mary Rose McGlynn, a 32-year employee at Busch’s, wrote on his card that she would miss his “sense of humor.” Another employee advised him to “hunt-n-fish and love every day.”

Fahnestock’s older brother, Dan, helped him load his truck. Dan is chief of the Ash Township Volunteer Fire Department where both he and his brother have more than 70 years of combined service.

Their father, Henry, ran the department for about 25 years before Dan took over. Mike remembers assisting at serious accidents along Telegraph Rd. and battling two particularly bad structure fires — Petit’s Automotive at least 20 years ago and Fry’s Tavern at Grafton and Carleton-Rockwood Rds.

Dan, who’s also director of transportation and grounds at Airport Community Schools, said it won’t be easy finding someone to replace his brother on the fire department.

“Mike and I are pretty close. We rely on each other,” Dan said Monday. “He’s making a big move. He bought a home that’s close to mine, so I’ll see him on weekends as much as I do now.”

The brothers also own a centennial tree farm that their grandfather started.

The Fahnestocks have two grown children — Mikayla, 24, who is employed at the ISD, and Jacob, 20, who serves in the U.S. Air Force in Nebraska.

Wendy Morrison, assistant meat manager, and Fahnestock are the last original employees who worked at Gruber’s before Busch’s bought the business in July, 1995. Morrison started at Gruber’s about the same time.

“He’s my right arm, like my brother,” Morrison said. “We’ve always done things together. His wife is one of my good friends. It will be hard to see them both leave.”

Fahnestock said he would miss Morrison and the employees the most.

“She’s like my sister,” he said.

He was working for Gruber’s Valu World when Busch’s, then an Ann Arbor-based grocery chain, acquired Gruber’s and converted it into a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week operation with a much larger product line. He and other employees had to reapply to work at the new store.

“We filled out applications, then they interviewed us and took all of us back,” he recalled.

Gruber’s was formerly owned by the Warren Gruber family along with his brothers, Mark and Jim. The sale to Busch’s ended a long Monroe County tradition of grocery retailing for the family that started in 1914.

The Carleton store became one of Busch’s 17 stores in Michigan, including outlets in Canton, Clinton, Saline and Tecumseh.

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